XVII. GRANNY FOX IS FOUND OUT

Granny Fox is sly and wise

 

And seldom taken by surprise,

 

But wisdom wrongly put to use

 

Can never find a good excuse.

 

It ceases then to wisdom be,

 

But foolishness, as we shall see.

 

 

NOW, with all her smartness and all her cleverness, old Granny Fox had made one great mistake. Yes, Sir, old Granny Fox had made one great mistake. You see, she had become so used to being thought the smartest and cleverest of all the little people who lived on the Green Meadows and around the Smiling Pool and in the Green Forest, that she had come to believe that there couldn't be anybody anywhere as smart and clever as she. That was because she didn't know Old Man Coyote. And now, as she and Reddy Fox watched from their hiding place the meeting between Old Man Coyote and Prickly Porky, she felt a sudden sharp sting in her pride. Old Man Coyote had proved himself too smart for Prickly Porky. She ground her teeth as she heard him laughing fit to kill himself as he kept out of Prickly Porky's reach, and she ground them still more as she heard him say:

 

“You will boast that you will drive me out of the Green Forest, will you, Mr. Porcupine¹? The time to brag² will be when you have done it.”

 

Prickly Porky stopped short in the middle of one of his clumsy rushes.

 

“Boaster and bragger³ yourself!” he grunted⁴. “You don't seem to be dining on Porcupine the first time we meet. Why don't you? Why don't you make your own boast good?”

 

Old Man Coyote stopped laughing and pricked⁵ up his ears. “What's that?” he demanded. “What's that? Somebody has been filling your ears with something that is very like a lie, Mr. Porcupine.”

 

“No more than they have yours, Mr. Coyote,” replied Prickly Porky, letting his thousand little spears drop part way back into his coat. “But old Granny Fox told me.”

 

“Ha! So it was Granny Fox!” interrupted Old Man Coyote. “So it was old Granny Fox! Well, it was that same old mischief-maker who told me that—” He stopped and suddenly looked very hard at the very place where Granny and Reddy were hiding. Then he made, a long jump in that direction. Granny and Reddy didn't wait for him.

 

They started for home so fast that they looked like nothing but two little red streaks⁶ disappearing among the trees.

 

“Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho! Hee, hee, hee! Ha, ho, he, ho!” laughed Old Man Coyote, and all the little meadow and forest people who were looking on laughed with him. Then he turned to Prickly Porky.

 

“I guess you and I are going to be friends,” said he.

 

“I guess we are,” replied Prickly Porky, and all his little spears dropped out of sight.

 

1 porcupine   

n.豪猪， 箭猪

参考例句：

• A porcupine is covered with prickles.箭猪身上长满了刺。
• There is a philosophy parable,call philosophy of porcupine.有一个哲学寓言，叫豪猪的哲学。

2 brag   

v./n.吹牛，自夸；adj.第一流的

参考例句：

• He made brag of his skill.他夸耀自己技术高明。
• His wealth is his brag.他夸张他的财富。

3 bragger   

n.吹牛

参考例句：

• He'd still think you hopeless, but would put you down as a and a bragger too. 他还是会觉得你没有希望，而且会把你当成一个讨厌鬼、一个吹牛大王。 来自互联网

4 grunted   

（猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说

参考例句：

• She just grunted, not deigning to look up from the page. 她只咕哝了一声，继续看书，不屑抬起头来看一眼。
• She grunted some incomprehensible reply. 她咕噜着回答了些令人费解的话。

5 pricked   

刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛

参考例句：

• The cook pricked a few holes in the pastry. 厨师在馅饼上戳了几个洞。
• He was pricked by his conscience. 他受到良心的谴责。

6 streaks   

n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹

参考例句：

• streaks of grey in her hair 她头上的绺绺白发
• Bacon has streaks of fat and streaks of lean. 咸肉中有几层肥的和几层瘦的。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》